Call it a promotional stunt or a friendly gesture to cash in on an actor’s popularity. Southern stars like Suriya, Dhanush, Ravi Teja and Vishal Krishna Reddy, despite their busy schedules, have taken out time to play cameos in a range of upcoming films.
Suriya, who is busy wrapping up Tamil horror-comedy Masss, is playing a cameo in his home production Haiku, a children’s film, along with popular actress Amala Paul. Director Pandiraj said Suriya jumped at the opportunity to work with children. “I casually asked Suriya sir whether he’d like to be part of the project. I had written a small role and he was excited to be part of the film, more so because it’s a children’s film. We’ve already started shooting it,” Pandiraj told IANS. Actor Dhanush has played a brief role in his wife Aishwarya R Dhanush’s upcoming Tamil directorial Vai Raja Vai. According to insiders, Dhanush has reprised his role of Kokki Kumar from 2006 Tamil gangster drama Pudhupettai in the movie.
In upcoming Kannada film Vajrakaya, popular southern stars such as Ravi Teja, Sivakarthikeyan, Ravichandran and Dileep matched steps with superstar Shivarajkumar for a special song. Director
Harsha has also managed to rope in Dhanush to croon a song in his film. “He’s such a talented singer as well. It didn’t take him much time to get the Kannada lines right,” Harsha said.
Actor Vishal has played a cameo role in upcoming Tamil comedy Vasuvum Saravananum Onna Padichavanga. It is for the sake of friendship, Vishal took up the role in the film, which features his best friend Arya in the lead. Arya, on the other hand, has featured in a cameo in his best friend Vishnu Vishal’s upcoming Tamil release Indru Netru Naalai.
A leading producer explains why, “It’s a simple tactic to bring audiences to the cinemas. If their favourite star is playing a five-minute cameo, fans usually tend to go crazy. It’s slowly becoming a trend. Popular stars are willing to chip in even for free.”